QUOTE
I don't want France to become Americanized.
And who is proposing that? There are many European countries with better economic and employmnet records than France without being Ämericanized" ......what ever that means.
An Emerging Trend?
And who is proposing that? There are many European countries with better economic and employmnet records than France without being Ämericanized" ......what ever that means.
I read that article. Not living there, I can't mak an honest opinion. I'm rereading 60 million Frenchmen can't be wrong.
I don't want France to become Americanized.
I don't want France to become Americanized.
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To be honest, I'm not sure I feel qualified to comment, but I will anyway and perhaps it will help keep the thread active so more people can respond. Disclaimer: The following is based on hearsay, observations, and some personal knowledge and may or may not be accurate. Feedback is welcome and encouraged.
The French (and they are the first to admit it) are de sacrés râleurs -- bloody grumblers, if you will -- who feel strongly about what they consider are their rights and passionate about their right to protest anything that may threaten those rights. As you may be aware, a transit strike is currently underway to protest the proposed changes in retirement. People I know who had to spend 3+ hours each way to get to work and others who were forced to take an unpaid day off suffered because of the strike, yet many of them vehemently defend the right for that strike to take place in spite of the negative ripple effect it causes for nonstriking workers. At the same time, solidarity tends to give way to annoyance and people's support wanes as they are inconvenienced, particularly when the issues at hand don't affect them.
Article about the retirement issues & strike: Transit strike
From my American point of view, given our average age of retirement in the US, I shake my head and think, "You guys are a bunch of whiners," not wanting to change being able to retire at age 50 with pension, whereas even the standard average retirement at age 60 sounds good to me (in my age bracket, I'll have to work until age 67 to collect my full Social Security payments).
On the other end of the spectrum, another of the proposals concerns prohibiting companies from forcing workers to retire at 65. Here's another area where the circumstances in our two countries diverge greatly. I recently read an article about US seniors working much longer, into their 70s and 80s... some because they enjoyed it, but many more because they had to in order to make ends meet. The French don't necessarily have the same issues, given the way their health care system is set up and maybe also their equivalent of social security (with which I'm not familiar at all), so perhaps they don't need to work later.
Back to the original article in this thread: I've known able-bodied, skilled, intelligent people here who have spent years not working because they didn't feel like it and because the government paid them anyway--they would have people they knew sign their job-hunting slips and go on drawing unemployment benefits. In that regard, changing the unemployment system would certainly help the economy.
Regarding the 35-hour work week, which actually hasn't been in place all that long (people grumbled about it in the beginning, and now they don't want to give it up): Many, many people put in more than 35 hours a week. They can't be paid above the 35 hours, so instead they get time off in compensation. This is on top of the already generous amount of vacation they get, and often toward the end of the year they end up having to take a lot of time off to use it up. Again, I'm not qualified to comment on the economics of this, but it seems terribly out of balance to me.
Yet, at the same time, I hear of people here who are looking for jobs but can't find work (why, I'm not exactly sure, though I know part of it is regional). On one hand you hear that unemployment is high at 8%; on the other hand you hear that jobs are simply not available. What gives?
If there are any French people hanging around here reading this, it would be wonderful if you would jump in and share your perspective. Please.
The French (and they are the first to admit it) are de sacrés râleurs -- bloody grumblers, if you will -- who feel strongly about what they consider are their rights and passionate about their right to protest anything that may threaten those rights. As you may be aware, a transit strike is currently underway to protest the proposed changes in retirement. People I know who had to spend 3+ hours each way to get to work and others who were forced to take an unpaid day off suffered because of the strike, yet many of them vehemently defend the right for that strike to take place in spite of the negative ripple effect it causes for nonstriking workers. At the same time, solidarity tends to give way to annoyance and people's support wanes as they are inconvenienced, particularly when the issues at hand don't affect them.
Article about the retirement issues & strike: Transit strike
From my American point of view, given our average age of retirement in the US, I shake my head and think, "You guys are a bunch of whiners," not wanting to change being able to retire at age 50 with pension, whereas even the standard average retirement at age 60 sounds good to me (in my age bracket, I'll have to work until age 67 to collect my full Social Security payments).
On the other end of the spectrum, another of the proposals concerns prohibiting companies from forcing workers to retire at 65. Here's another area where the circumstances in our two countries diverge greatly. I recently read an article about US seniors working much longer, into their 70s and 80s... some because they enjoyed it, but many more because they had to in order to make ends meet. The French don't necessarily have the same issues, given the way their health care system is set up and maybe also their equivalent of social security (with which I'm not familiar at all), so perhaps they don't need to work later.
Back to the original article in this thread: I've known able-bodied, skilled, intelligent people here who have spent years not working because they didn't feel like it and because the government paid them anyway--they would have people they knew sign their job-hunting slips and go on drawing unemployment benefits. In that regard, changing the unemployment system would certainly help the economy.
Regarding the 35-hour work week, which actually hasn't been in place all that long (people grumbled about it in the beginning, and now they don't want to give it up): Many, many people put in more than 35 hours a week. They can't be paid above the 35 hours, so instead they get time off in compensation. This is on top of the already generous amount of vacation they get, and often toward the end of the year they end up having to take a lot of time off to use it up. Again, I'm not qualified to comment on the economics of this, but it seems terribly out of balance to me.
Yet, at the same time, I hear of people here who are looking for jobs but can't find work (why, I'm not exactly sure, though I know part of it is regional). On one hand you hear that unemployment is high at 8%; on the other hand you hear that jobs are simply not available. What gives?
If there are any French people hanging around here reading this, it would be wonderful if you would jump in and share your perspective. Please.
QUOTE(BPAL @ Oct 18 2007, 09:50 AM) 
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The fact that 8% of the workers in France are on extended vacations is a hard price to pay for the French work philosophy. It is in fact a selfish attitude since this 8% unemployed has this philosophy to thank. In this respect I think the French want to have their cake and eat it.
A thread on divorce goes on but this thread stops here.
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The fact that 8% of the workers in France are on extended vacations is a hard price to pay for the French work philosophy. It is in fact a selfish attitude since this 8% unemployed has this philosophy to thank. In this respect I think the French want to have their cake and eat it.
The fact that 8% of the workers in France are on extended vacations is a hard price to pay for the French work philosophy. It is in fact a selfish attitude since this 8% unemployed has this philosophy to thank. In this respect I think the French want to have their cake and eat it.
An Emerging Trend?? Do you agree with Roger Cohen?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/opinion/...70&emc=eta1